#87 - Perils, Pitfalls and Perseverance with Eve Silver

Episode 87 of the Kobo Writing Life podcast features a keynote address from When Words Collide’s 2016 Guest of Honour, Eve Silver. She is a national bestselling author of books for adults and teens, has won the Ontario Library Association’s “Forest of Reading White Pine Award” and has been praised for her “edgy, steamy, action-packed” books, darkly sexy heroes and take-charge heroines.

Eve is introduced by Randy McCharles, When Words Collide chair, and who happens to also be a successful author.

In her keynote talk from When Words Collide, Eve talks about:

• Writing her first book at the age of 9
• The first form-letter rejection she received at that same age, which crushed her “little writer’s heart”
• A short story she wrote at the age of 16 for a high school assignment which led to a teacher calling out her talent
• The next teacher she encountered who wasn’t as fond of the fiction Eve was writing for her homework assignments and how that represented the second time her “little writer’s heart” was crushed
• The first romance novel she wrote, which was a historical romance novel
• Advice from her parents that writers don’t make any money, which led to her university degree in science
• Her supportive husband who recognized that her heart was never in science, but in writing
• The writing course she took, which re-ignited the spark in her “littler writer’s heart”
• The manuscript that shall remained buried in her back-yard
• The fact that if you are a writer, you write, no matter how many times your “little writer’s heart” is crushed
• The regular process of submission, rejection, submission, rejection that Eve persisted through
• An important look at the sixteen editors from seven different publishing houses she has worked with (and how most of them had originally rejected her in her early attempts) – but she persisted
• The fact that writing and publishing is a business and the importance of not holding grudges
• The post-apocalyptic trans-Siberian trucker romance novel that she originally couldn’t sell, but which did eventually sell and went on to receive a stared review in Publishers Weekly and was chosen as Library Journal’s best genre fiction for that year
• Doing what you have to do in order to keep writing – because writers write and authors sacrifice
• The challenge of getting rid of the “doubt weasel” that can sit on a writer’s shoulder
• The fact that writing isn’t just what you do, but it’s who you are

Mark then shares a few thoughts on the concept of what can happen to the “little writer heart” with all the types of rejection (either from publishers or from lack of sales), as well as a reminder about the important theme in Eve’s message, that writers write, no matter what.

Links of Interest:

Eve Silver's Website

Eve Silver's Books on Kobo

When Words Collide Website